Top 3 songs from 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, 2009

April 14, 2009

It occurred to me to look back at the top selling singles from the past 60 years in increments of 10 years. I’ll bring this to my class and use these songs for analysis and discussion. Questions: why do you think this song was so popular? What is unique about this song? What is the song structure? Is there anything harmonically or melodically unusual or eccentric in this song? Can you dance to it? Could it be Muzak? How are these three songs different than the songs from 10 years ago? [rankings from Billboard and other sources]